IAM2153 – Business Coach Helps Business Owners Achieve Their Full Potential

In this episode, we have Jennifer Dawn, a business coach, creator of The Best Planner Ever, and the author of The Joy Guide: Finding Your Joy In A World Of Crap and The Apple Stand: How To Rekindle The Love For Your Business.

Jennifer explains that it's common for business owners to blame external factors for their struggles, but true change begins with taking ownership of those challenges.

Jennifer highlights the importance of not only developing the business owner but also their team to ensure that positive changes permeate the entire organization.

Website: Jennifer Dawn Coaching
Book: The Apple Stand
LinkedIn: Jennifer Dawn

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Transcription:

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Jennifer Dawn Teaser 00:00

We work on transforming the business owner but also their team. And we do it from the inside out. And I will explain that, and in that we always start internally because as a business owner, it's so very easy to get caught in the trap of blaming people, places, things like all this stuff, right? All these things are the reasons why I'm not succeeding. My stress level is so high. I'm working so many hours. But in order to change those things, we've got to fully take ownership of them.

Intro 00:31

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:59

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jennifer Dawn. Jennifer, excited to have you on the show.

Jennifer Dawn 01:06

I'm super excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:09

Absolutely. And Jennifer is doing so many awesome things. And before we jumped in and talked about some of those awesome things, I want to read a little bit more so you can get a little bit more of a glimpse into who Jennifer is and all the awesome things that she's doing. And Jennifer coaches business owners to go from overwhelmed to laser focused, escape the hamster wheel of constantly doing and building unstoppable mindset to manifest their boldest vision, boldest business vision.

She's the founder of Jennifer Dawn Coaching, creator of The Best Planner Ever, and the author of two books, The Joy Guide: Finding Your Joy in a World of Crap, and the Apple Stand: How to Rekindle the Love of Your Business. Jennifer is a profit first certified coach and host of the Happy Productive Podcast. She began her entrepreneurial career at eight selling apples off her grandfather's tree because a lemonade stand was just so yesterday. And I always appreciate having fellow podcasters on the show.

Her Happy Productive Podcast has loads of great guests and information and gleaning into some of the brilliance that Jennifer has, which I truly appreciate. And I love the forward-thinking nature she had even when she decided not to do the lemonade stand and the apple stand. Her first software company at the age of 23 to $1 million in sales annually. And while she wasn't building, while she was building the high level masterminds, I love that's actually what led her to her purpose and her passion. And I think so many times we forget that by doing sometimes it leads us there. So Jennifer, excited to have you on the show. Love everything that you're doing. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Jennifer Dawn 02:37

I am so ready. Let's do this.

Gresham Harkless 02:40

Let's get this done. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock. I know I touched on them a little bit. Here a little bit more on how you got started, what to call your CEO story.

Jennifer Dawn 02:48

Yeah, so I got started like you read at age 8 when I used to spend summers at my grandparents' house and they were chiropractors and their office was attached to the home and my grandfather planted the entire property in a lot of fruit and nut trees. And I remember I was just one day in the front yard sitting up in the apple tree crunching away and saw all the apples on the ground and saw the patients going in and out of the office and just had an idea. And it was like, man, you know what? And I told the adults and they all were like, have a lemonade stand.

That's what kids do. And I'm like, no, I got to do something different here. And so I created my apple stand. And that's really what my second book that just came out is about is that first business where you had an idea, you took some action, and it actually turned into money in your hands, which is such a beautiful, beautiful thing. And so that is really how I got started in my like early, early years. And then when I was 23 is when I started my first software company and now I'm a coach and I've been doing that for about 12 years now.

Gresham Harkless 03:50

Nice, I absolutely love that. It's so funny like that action that you take it changes a little bit as you get older and the stakes get a little bit higher but at the same time those seeds have planted and you end up doing a lot of the things that we used to kind of think about doing when we were children.

Jennifer Dawn 04:06

Yeah, I was very fortunate with my grandparents because I just saw this beautiful example of work-life balance where they were working, they were in the home, they were earning a living, they were healing, helping people, but then also taking care of us. And it was just in my world, that was just like those perfect things. So I think I really kind of split this, this idea of work life balance and then of having your own business and just, I don't know, growing up that just seemed to be like, wow, that was it, that was the thing to do.

Gresham Harkless 04:35

Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more about some of those tools. Can you take us through a little bit more on how you're working with your clients? And of course, we'd love to hear more about the book and everything that you're talking about there.

Jennifer Dawn 04:46

Absolutely. So I think one of the ways that we work with our clients that is a little bit unique in the coaching space is that we work on transforming the business owner, but also their team, and we do it from the inside out. And I will explain that. And in that, we always start internally because as a business owner, it's so very easy to get caught in the trap of blaming people, places, things like all this stuff, right? All these things are the reasons why I'm not succeeding. My stress level is so high. I'm working so many hours. But in order to change those things, we've got to fully take ownership of them. We've got to own all of it. And then when we do, now we're in a place to change. But often we don't realize that there are deeper underlying limiting beliefs, fears, stories running.

And I've worked on healing, correcting many of the stuff for myself and my own business. So I really and truly have seen the power of, oh, I didn't realize that I had a story running on this and it's been running for quite some time. But when we start to change that, now the tactical actions go so much further. So too often we're trying to solve problems by thinking and doing our way out of them. But if you find that you're just like in these repetitive patterns and you can't seem to break the pattern, that's why we go internal. And so that's why our coaching is a little bit unique because we just start on the inside and work our way out from there.

But I've seen it to be the fatty to get not just results, but like long lasting permanent change. And that's really what we're after for our clients. So we love doing this work with we up until the last couple of years, we'd work mostly just with business owners. But then I started to see you coach him, you develop them, the owner's doing great, and then it doesn't always trickle down to the team. And so it's, ah, some of those same problems are coming back up again.

And so most business owners, at least I know for me, I'm just like, I don't wanna take the time to develop my team. I wanna run my business. And so we saw that as an opportunity with our clients to take our level of service a little bit deeper with them of just like, why don't you just let us handle the developing of your people for you? And boy, they are just loving that. And now we're in into the whole organization and now we can really help the entire organization evolve by developing not just the owner but their team as well.

Gresham Harkless 07:10

Yeah I absolutely love that especially that secret sauce the thing you do that's such a part of makes you unique because I think so many times when you think about creating that transformation, we always look at those external things. If it's a building, we're like, okay, we need to do the windows, we need to do the door, we need to do all those outside things, but not paying attention to that foundational element. And as leaders, so many times it ends up being something that might be a story we're telling ourselves that kind of perpetuates itself through so many different ways. But also we forget that the other people have built buildings as well too, and they also need to be developed and be I don't want to say scrutinized, but just be aware of what is happening and why some things are manifesting themselves, I imagine over and over again.

Jennifer Dawn 07:54

Yeah. A lot of business owners and I have been one of them too, where we just like, girl, tell me how to fix it.

Gresham Harkless 07:59

Tell me how to fix it.

Jennifer Dawn 07:59

And it's what email do I have to build? What social media campaign do I need to run? And so it's like, all right, you want to know how to fix it? Let me tell you how to fix it. You're not going to maybe like the answer, but it's we're going to look inside you. That's where we're going to start. And it's interesting. Sometimes people just want to jump right in. And sometimes people are very resistant, but once they get a taste of it and they start to really understand, oh, this actually does all start with me. And that's why I'm having the problem in this tactical thing that's not working. Then the transformation is just so powerful and so profound.

And yeah, I just it makes this work. I love, love, love doing this work. I think my favorite thing is hearing a client say, Jen, I got an aha. I figured out what that was blogging me and now boom, I'm going like gangbusters. So, yeah, it's just, it's really good stuff and we need to look in the right place. If we want to fix it, like truly fix it, not band-aid it, not come up with all this stuff that isn't really going to work, but really truly get in there and fix it. That's the only place where you can start.

Gresham Harkless 09:06

Yeah, that makes so much sense. So would you consider that to be a little bit more of what I like to call a CEO hack? It could be like an Apple Book or even a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient? Is it the power of words and being able to harness that? Is that your CEO hack?

Jennifer Dawn 09:21

Yeah, my CEO hack would be two things. One is the power of my words and paying very clear attention to the words I'm using so that I am creating what I really want to put out there and create. And my second hack would be my planner, honestly, like I literally cannot live without it every single day. If I can't sit and plan my day in that format. And just a couple little things that are very different is that the first thing is you get clear on your vision So before you jump into the busy of the day, you're getting clear on where you want to go so it connects you to that long-term thinking so I'm taking actions today to really get me to where I want to go in the future. And then I always work from a prioritized to do list.

So never just the long list where I'm ticking things off. I use what I call the ABCs of productivity. And so an A task every day, I try to commit to one a task, which is move the needle forward, working on the business instead of in it. But I'm just doing something to move that forward. And then the B's are very important and C's are just things that can be done as necessary. D is delegate, E is eliminated, F is fun. Those are my ABCs. And so when I'm doing my sitting down and I'm planning my day, the first five minutes are just always clarity on and setting my intention on what I want to accomplish for the day. And I do include fun in there too, because we need to have some fun. It's really, really important.

Gresham Harkless 10:49

Yeah, absolutely. So what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I call a CEO nugget? You might've already touched on this, but it could be something you would tell your favorite client, something you might tell your younger business. So if you were to happen to a time machine or potentially something from your book as well.

Jennifer Dawn 11:03

Oh, so great. So my nugget would be to, okay, when you're struggling, ask for help. I know that's like an obvious one that I'm sure a lot of people say, but I went back to my younger self and here I am. I started my first software company when I was 23 and I got my little ego and look at me. I own a software company and I did so many things wrong. I did so many things the hard way. I did so many things that cost me so much money because my ego was like, oh, you can't ask for help. You're the boss. You need to have all the answers.

And then of course, I didn't know how to hire the right people, but that was later on. I figured that one out. But to just check the ego and ask for help, I think is so important. And that's what the book is about too, that if you're feeling isolated, if you're feeling burned out, if you're just like, man, I'm not loving this aspect of my business or even my whole business. And I just want to get rid of it. It's so important to speak up and to reach out and to start having conversations about this and then taking steps to get back to where you would really and truly like to be in your business.

And I promise that it's okay. Once you start asking, it's wow, I'm just going to ask for help for everything. When you open up that channel, now the information can flow in and the information can come in so many ways. So even just by internally, we talked about starting on the inside within yourself. Anytime I saying, I don't know, I don't know, right? Really how many times a day when you say, I don't know, what are you creating? You're creating. I don't know. And so instead, what I'll do with that, too, I choose to know. So anytime there's an answer out there, I choose to know. And then I just stay open.

And sure enough, when you're open, the answers will find you and they will come in all kinds of different ways they might even come from this show of listening of wow not even realizing that you're closing that door of opportunity every time you say, I don't know door slams. I'm closed. That's it. But if you open that door, I choose to know now you're, you can receive all the knowledge, all the information, the connections, the opportunities, all of that stuff. You're a little open book.

Gresham Harkless 13:16

Yeah. That is a being so powerful to be able to step into that. And I love that you brought up that ego piece because I always say it's like a balanced beam of being that person that quote unquote has the desire and the ego to be able to believe they can start a business, but also that it could be your biggest downfall if you allow it to be and not realize that you can't ask for help.

Jennifer Dawn 13:36

Agreed. And again, it goes right back to more language. It's a simple thing, but it can change everything when we, again, starting from the inside, we start to allow those good things to happen.

Gresham Harkless 13:50

Yeah, absolutely. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So, Jennifer, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Jennifer Dawn 14:01

I don't know if you've ever seen the movie New in Town. Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. Okay, it's one of my favorites. Check it out. You can watch it with your kids. It's rated PG. It's one of my favorite movies. But in the movie in the beginning, she aspires to be a CEO. And you could see that her definition of that comes with some wealth, some status. And I think that in my earlier days, that's what I felt like too. Ooh, I'm a CEO and it was a role and it was status and it was power and things like that. As the movie evolved, she has a new definition of CEO.

And that would be really where I'm at today, where I really feel like it's an honor because it's an opportunity to lead and contribute and to influence really as a CEO, leading our companies, working with other business owners who are then going to go out and they're going to they're going to pay it forward as well. So to me, a CEO now in my more wise years is really about that. It's about leadership. It's about influence. It's about making an impact in the world, even if it's just a small impact of just changing one business owner, because then they're going to turn around and they're going to go serve so many others.

Gresham Harkless 15:13

Awesome. I absolutely love that perspective. Jennifer truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best to get a copy of your books and about all the awesome things you're doing. And of course, be able to subscribe to your podcast as well.

Jennifer Dawn 15:32

Awesome, wonderful. You can find me online at jenniferdawncoaching.com. If you wanna grab a copy of the book, you can check that out at applestandbook.com. And we're running, at the end of this month, we're running a business bliss challenge. It's a 7 days to rekindle the love for your business and you can find information on that from the AppleStandbook.com and I am on social begrudgingly a little bit. I'm out there. I'm on all the platforms. You can find me on LinkedIn as well. But really the best place is jenniferdawncoaching.com or Apple Standbook. And I hope that it helps you in some way. But yes, come find me, come connect with me.

Gresham Harkless 16:13

Absolutely. We definitely will. And of course, to make it even easier. We'll have the links and information that's shown us as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. But I truly appreciate everything that you're doing and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Jennifer Dawn 16:23

Thanks for having me.

Outro 16:25

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at CEOhacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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